Before I Loved You
by chocolatemintkisses
Summary: The thoughts swirling around in both of the twin's minds were ones of confusion and curiosity.  She wasn't the average girl. Heck, they could tell that when they first laid eyes on her. This was going to be fun.
1. Chapter 1

Before I Loved You

Chapter One

Kaoru and Hikaru watched outside their window for anyone interesting they could play with as their limo waited in line to get out of the golden gates of their school. Glancing about they searched the sea of students waiting on the well gardened lawn for something different. Then they saw a rather plain girl in a commoner's outfit hurriedly walked pass their limo on the way home from school. She looked just like any other girl that was at their school, long brown hair, and a skinny figure dressed in a blue and white school uniform. Well, you know, except that she didn't look rich…and they were pretty sure that she wasn't in their grade. Not that they would know. Everyone else in their class wasn't apart of them. Even better, someone else they could tease, except this time they wouldn't have to deal with rich parents chasing after them.

"Hey! Girl!" they shouted as they casually stepped out of their limo, not caring whether or not their driver went home without them. Stepping out onto the well paved sidewalk in front of the many acres of the elite Ouran Academy they started to grin.

After all, what could be more fun than playing a game? Strolling behind the girl they quickly moved to either side of her and put their arms around her shoulders. Jumping, she looked around at both of them with big, thoughtful brown eyes.

Blandly, she said, "What?" The twin's eyes locked as they both took in the girl's appearance. Strangely, there was no blush on her face. Weird.

"Nothing." Kaoru said as the continued to walk alongside her. "Yeah, do we have to ask your permission to hang around you?" echoed Hikaru. "Yeah, actually, you do," spoke the girl as she shrugged their arms off of her shoulders. "Now, of you'll excuse me I have to go and do some shopping." She said as she picked up her pace, obviously annoyed with the boys that were hanging onto her like leeches. "At least tell us your name." spoke the boy on her right. "We'll even tell you our names."

Sighing she stopped in her tracks as she turned around to face these two people that were supposedly already allowed to hang their arms around her. They were twins. Both had golden eyes that glinted in the sun along with their reddish-orange hair. Wearing crisp white uniforms she could already tell that they were cut from a different cloth than she was.

"Haruhi Fujioka. Okay?" she said in not exactly a nice tone of voice. "And you are?" she questioned. On her right she heard a name being called out. "Hikaru, and over there is Kaoru." Grinning, he then put his arm around her. "Now that the introductions have been made we can hang around with you now, right?"

The thoughts swirling around in both of the twin's minds were ones of confusion and curiosity. She wasn't the average girl. Heck, they could tell that when they first laid eyes on her. This was going to be fun. As the twins continued to push their new reluctant "friend" towards what they called commoner's land they heard a voice. No, not any voice, a voice that was much too loud and annoying to even be called a voice.

"Hikaru, Kaoru! Come back. I know which one of you is which! On the left is Hikaru and on the right is Kaoru!" shouted a smiling blonde haired boy. "I got it right, didn't I?" Tamaki smirked as he sauntered up to them. "Huh? Who's this?" he said out loud as he shoved the twins out of the way. Turning around Haruhi looked up at the teen that was now looking at the twins with a frustrated glance. "Have they been bothering you miss?" he whispered smoothly as he took her hand. "Don't worry I'll protect you from those two demons."

"What?" Haruhi thought as she was dragged forwards by this guy who thought that he was a knight or something. "Oh well, at least he got rid of those other two guys. Plus, this is the way to the supermarket."

"Tono! Get back here!" yelled the twins as they ran to catch up to the princely figure that had stolen their new toy.

"No, get away from her! Harassing a poor commoner who obviously just go lost. She's probably only in front of the school because she was so amazed by the beauty of it. Now shoo! Shoo!" Tamaki scolded as he waved his hands for the two other boys to leave as he put himself protectively in front of this girl that was being assaulted by those devils.

Turning around he smiled his oh so charming smile that made girls swoon at school and knelt down in front of the girl. Taking in her appearance into his bright violet eyes he finally introduced himself, "Tamaki Suoh," he said as he grabbed her hand.

"Um, Haruhi Fujioka." she said as she squirmed in her spot on the sidewalk. "What's up with all these rich people? I thought they were supposed to be smarter than normal people." she thought as she wiggled her hand out of Tamaki's.

Suddenly a chorus of laughs burst out from behind them. "Please Tono, all you're doing is making her uncomfortable. Can't you see that?" Kaoru said as he bent over, out of breath from laughing so hard.

"Am I? Am I really?" the blonde boy said from his position on the ground. With eyes close to crying he got up and walked over to a tree. He then put his head on his knees and began to pick at the grass.

"Don't worry about Tono!" Hikaru said as he took his place on Haruhi's right side. "Yeah, don't worry he'll get better soon. Just compliment him or say that he didn't make you feel uncomfortable." whispered Kaoru.

Confused Haruhi did as they told and watched Tamaki get up and regain his confidence rather quickly. Smiling he walked back up to her and started telling Hikaru and Kaoru about how he was right and they were wrong. "Honestly, what grade were these people in?" the girl wondered as she continued to walk along the sidewalk with these three rich boys trailing along beside her. "I had only come to turn in my application and look what happens. Now, I'm going to miss the sale." Haruhi pondered to herself as she heard a car, excuse me, not a car, a limo pull up beside them.

"Mr. Hikaru and Mr. Kaoru, I think you need to get home." The driver said as he spoke through the window.

"Of course," the twins said in unison. Grinning their catlike grin they grabbed Haruhi's arms and threw her into their limo and threw themselves in after her. Quickly, they shut the door and opened the window a crack to wave an evil goodbye to their blonde "friend" that they had left talking to himself on the sidewalk as their driver pulled away from Ouran Academy.


	2. Chapter 2

Before I Loved You

Chapter Two

Haruhi's POV

I'd never been in a limo before, especially one that was stocked with a ton of _really _good looking food, not to mention all of the great looking drinks they had also. Wait, what was I saying, I was practically kidnapped. By two random rich boys of all people! Turning to my right I saw the two of them laughing at my expression from being in their car, _cough_, excuse me, limo.

"Where are you taking me?" I demanded.

"Why were you here?" spoke both of the twins, "You don't look rich enough to be going to this school."

God, these people were relentless at their questioning weren't they. "I was applying to get in, okay, so just let me get out of here and then I'll be on my way out of your life, okay."

Quickly, one of them grabbed a remote and then locked the doors to the limo.

"We're going to our home." spoke the one on the left. "Yeah, you're our new toy now." said the one on the right.

Ugh. Did they just say toy? These dang rich people thought they owned everyone didn't they?

"Oh, and if you didn't realize it, we're rich and influential. Therefore we could easily just misplace your file for applying for the school." said the redhead…I think it was Hikaru. Kaoru continued on, "Yeah, or you know, we could just maybe dump it in a pond."

What the heck? These weren't just your average spoiled brats. They were actually evil. And smart, but mostly evil. I guess people would normally be freaking out now but honestly, what could these rich boys do to me. The worst thing was that I would have to spend an afternoon in some fancy house while eating some fancy food. Then, I looked out the window. Excuse me, not just a fancy house, but an enormous house that was led up to by a 40 foot driveway. Oh, and I hadn't even mentioned the fountains, the balconies, the pillars, the statues, and all of the servants that were waiting for them when they came home.

Grinning at my gaping mouth the twins opened the car door and pulled me out with them. As they practically ignored all of the servants they marched me up the driveway, into their house, er mansion, and into the foyer, which was bigger than my entire apartment.

Pushing me over to a fluffy couch they sat me down on it as they ran off up a huge staircase. "Wait here." they yelled back over their shoulders. As I sunk into the downy cream colored couch I looked about me. Ceilings that I had to arch my head to look at, beautiful stone pillars with flowers engraved in them, shining marble tile, and a lot of little art works placed on pedestals around the foyer. Pushing myself up from the couch I walked over to one of the pieces of art. It was a vase, not big, but not small. Not necessarily what lots of people would call pretty, but I thought it was nice enough. The vase had sort of an aura around it, like it was drawing you to it. The body of the vase was pastel green with dark green patterns painted onto it; also, it had dark green handles. Slowly, and carefully, I reached my hand out so that it was nearly touching the vase. As I was drawing it back I heard a loud shout, and then, the impossible happened.

When I heard the shout I jumped and my hand flew out towards the vase. As the vas sprawled over the pedestal I reached over and tried to catch the handles with my hands but I missed by about an inch. Crash! The vase was gone, splintered into about fifteen different shards on the floor, and now I was responsible. I felt two hands on my shoulders.

"Oh look what you've done now commoner. We were going to use that renaissance vase in the upcoming festival that our school was going to have. We were going to start the bid at $250,000 dollars. What are we going to do now?"

NO. No. This couldn't have been happening. I was indebted to two little rich boys that I barely knew of all people. And it was TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS.

"Um, can I pay you back later?" I squeaked as I looked down on the broken shards of glass that were lying innocently on the floor.

"How will you pay that back? If you can't afford to go to our school then you can't pay this back, obviously." said Hikaru. "Yeah, but there is a way you can pay us back…" smirked Kaoru.

"You can be our toy. We'll even pay for you to go to our school for a year. So you can go to school for one whole year for free…if you hang around with us… oh and if you be our toy and play with us after school." echoed Hikaru.

Toy? I would have to be their toy? What did that even mean? But then I would have a whole year at Ouran for free. That would help Dad a lot. Looking up at them I gave them my answer, "Fine. One whole year at Ouran for free right? No tricks? And all I have to do is hang around with you guys. Okay, and then my debt's paid off right?"

"Right!" the twins said in unison.

Then they grabbed me by the arms and led me up the stairs so that we could play together. As they led me up to their "playroom" which was more like their own personal arcade I saw a huge layout of snacks on a table that was placed in the middle of a bunch of electronic systems. And I don't mean just some of them. I meant every system there was under the sun. While they sauntered off to grab a game I walked towards the snack table. There I saw the usual stuff…you know chips, pizza…and fatty tuna. I had always wanted to try some of that stuff. With my eyes shining I called over to the twins, "Hey, I can have some of the food, right?"

"Sure." Kaoru called back. "Yeah we get new food everyday anyways." yelled Hikaru.

Ugh. These brats were much to spoiled, but I guess that worked out for me. As I was about to pick up a piece of the tuna I heard the door burst open, and in came the blond boy.

"Hikaru! Kaoru! How could you kidnap this young girl!" he yelled. Looking over at me he smiled. "I'm sorry have they been harassing you again. Don't worry…I HAVE COME TO SAVE YOU!"

"Tama-chan." said a short boy with honey blond hair as he walked into the room, "Why did we come to Hika-chan and Kao-chan's house?"

"Yeah." echoed a tall, lanky guy with black hair.

"Yes Tamaki, why did you drag me away from my nap when you knew that I only had one hour of sleep last night? Huh? "commented another black haired boy with silver glasses.

Even though he was smiling he didn't really seem that happy. His dark black eyes seemed to want to strangle Tamaki. The tall boy had a bored expression on his face. His hair was also black but it was spiked up. Lastly there was the honey haired boy. His eyes were light brown and he had a sweet smile on his face, he looked so small like he was in elementary school, but he had the high school uniform on.

Running behind me Tamaki cowered down. "I was rescuing Haruhi. See! Now that we came she's safe. See!"

"Right." commented the boy with glasses.

Running back the twins looked over the group that came barging into their house.

"What are you guys doing here?" they said.

Shrugging all of them walked over to couches and sat down. As they all sat down I was left standing near the snack table. I watched as the twins started to pick a fight with Tamaki, the tall guy sat down quietly, the short guy started to eat some cake, and the guy with glasses pulled out a laptop and started to type. What had I gotten myself into?


	3. Chapter 3

Before I Loved You

Chapter Three

Hikaru's POV

(A quick reminder…remember that the twins and Haruhi are in middle school!)

Slouching back in my seat I picked at the white threads of my uniform trying to ignore all of the annoying kids around me. Looking over Kaoru's shoulder I watched as he finished his science homework. "When is Haruhi going to be here." I grumbled over the shoulder of my brother. Class was boring without people to play with. All of the other kids were…well, I don't know. I just know that I had distaste for them. Plus, it's not like any of them were actually mean to us. Ugh. Where was she? We had slipped her file onto the counselor's desk the day after we had met her; we sort of took a look at her file and plumped up her resume. But not anything bad…just like how she had once saved a baby from getting run over. Very unlikely, but what would the counselor know? All the school needed was money, and once Haruhi got chosen for the scholarship they would probably never look at her file again. If she didn't get in with that resume, well, we would have made sure she got in some other way. A promise is a promise after all. When we had informed her the Friday they had announced the honor student when she was at our house all she did was smile that rare smile and eat some more of our food. Talk about unemotional…oh but then again she didn't scream at us for the rest of the night.

Bored, I looked up as she entered the room. Oh my God. What was she wearing? As the teacher introduced her to our class in homeroom before the day started all I could do was stare at her hideous clothes. If her hair wasn't that long and feminine she could have passed as a boy. Walking forward she sat in the desk next to me as she greeted us. "Hey Kaoru, Hikaru."

Turning away from his homework Kaoru gave a smile and went to wrap his arm around her shoulder. "We told you that we could get you in, didn't we?" smirked Kaoru. I would be doing the same thing except that she looked so different. I know that I probably sound really shallow but when all you see Haruhi in is skirts from a school uniform this was a drastic change. She had the same face and long brown hair, but the clothes. They weren't even matching! A maroon sweater with really baggy pants. Ew. She could have at least worn her old school's uniform.

"Hikaru?" Haruhi asked as she knelt down from her standing position so that she was looking eye to eye with me.

Shaking myself out of my daydreams I smirked too. "Hey, Haruhi. We told you that you could trust us, right? Also, what are you wearing?" I questioned. Dang, I really need to think before I speak. Now, I probably sound like some shallow rich boy…but I sort of was wasn't I? But that didn't matter right now. What mattered was giving Haruhi a makeover this afternoon. Glancing over Haruhi's head at Kaoru I could tell that he was thinking the same thing. Good. The plan was set for this afternoon. Plan make Haruhi all girly and pretty again. Heh. Like she could get out of this one. We practically got her into this school . Still smirking Haruhi sat down beside me as the morning classes started.

The rest of the day went by pretty smoothly. Well, I mean, if you count people just whispering about Haruhi behind her back instead of like going up to her and asking her why she was here. But then again, I was used to it. Apparently Haruhi wasn't. When Kaoru and I were heading off to lunch I noticed that Haruhi was staying in the classroom.

"Hey, Haruhi! You need to go to lunch now. Did you not have bells in your old school or something?" I asked.

As she looked at me I could clearly trace the annoyance that was blatantly portrayed on her face. "I don't _need _to go to lunch. I made my own this morning. You can go on without me. I have to read back over the notes that we took this morning in English." she said as she unwrapped her lunch.

Oh my gosh. It was one of those commoner lunch things that Tamaki was always talking about. Then I heard a loud bang and a crash right behind me. Speak of the devil.

Running over to Haruhi, he grabbed her shoulders and started shaking her. What the heck? "Are you okay Haruhi!" screamed Tamaki. If you want to transfer to another class I'll help you transfer. Just say the word and it'll be done." he ended with a serious face on.

"Um, no I'm fine with this class Tamaki-senpai. Thanks though." she said as calmly as she could as the rest of the high schoolers walked in.

Striding up to us Tamaki pointed to me a said, "Hello Kaoru. How has your day been?"

Wow was he really that dumb? Ignoring him I walked back towards Haruhi. "Hey, I'll trade you my lunch if I can have yours for today." I said.

Glancing up at me she said, "Sure." as she looked back towards her books. Dang, will this girl never stop studying? Soon, Haruhi had a small crowd of boys crowded around her, along with me. Surprisingly, she wasn't that annoyed with us. I would have assumed that she would have gotten sort of mad that we were all bothering her while she was trying to study, but I don't think that she would look so happy when Kaoru and I were done making her not look like…_that. _ We spent the rest of lunch trying to get a taste of Hauhi's bento that she reluctantly gave to us after about ten minutes of trying to keep it. She was a good cook. Although I didn't say it out loud I'm sure that she could tell when all of us, minus Kyoya and Mori, tried to get the last piece of her food. When Tamaki grabbed it and ran out to the hallway what could all of us do but follow.

Haruhi rolled her eyes as I left her with a grin and started to chase after Tamaki. I saw a couple of girls go into our classroom that were in high school uniforms. What would they want in there? Weird. Glancing at my brother and the others making a mad dash after Tamaki…except for Kyoya and Mori (do they ever act crazy?) I slowly walked back into our classroom. I had a funny feeling about those girls. Peeking my head in the door I saw Haruhi standing up from her desk with a calm look on her face. Then, I saw the three girls go into the room and take out a couple of pairs of scissors. They then continued to shout insults about Haruhi to her face. Then, they took their scissors and cut up all of Haruhi's notes that she had worked so hard on. Okay, that was it. Stalking into the room I grabbed a trashcan that was filled with trash and moved towards the three girls.

Then, I dumped it on them. I heard screams of outrage as Haruhi looked at me with an open mouth. Hey, look at that, another expression on her face besides a bored one…but that didn't matter right now. What mattered were those freaks that were bullying Haruhi. Really, they had a problem.

As they whirled around to possibly stab the person that had dumped the trash on them they were all about to scream on me when they realized who I was. I'm sure that you could guess that these shallow girls were big fashion fans, and what do you know, my mom is a HUGE fashion designer. My mom's name was probably stamped on the tags of all of their clothes.

The scowls and ugly faces turned into smiles and…ugly faces. "Hikaru!" a red haired on squealed, "What are you doing here? We were just trying to um, greet the new student!" she said as she flashed a smile towards Haruhi. Wasn't this supposed to be an elite school? How stupid could you get?

"Right," I said as I moved towards Haruhi. "And what were you doing to my girlfriend?" I asked.

Hugging her I smiled at her as I raised an eyebrow at the girls. Nervously, they dropped the scissors and started to walk quickly out of the room. Ha. I win.

Waiting for a grateful thanks from Haruhi all I got was a, "Did you just tell them that I was your girlfriend?"

Dang. I did didn't I? But that was just to get them to stop bothering her. Oh, well. If that rumor spread maybe they _would_ leave her alone.

Grinning I just was about to tell her the truth when Tamaki walked in. Gasping, he ran over to me and pushed me off of Haruhi. "What are you _doing _to her?" he shouted.

Smirking, I said, "It's because she's my girlfriend now." I said to Tamaki as the rest of his friends and Kaoru walked in. Only Kaoru could tell that I was kidding. Smiling, he gave me a thumbs up.

Rolling her eyes Haruhi said, "I don't really care about what I'm known as at this school. I just came here to learn." she said as she picked up her notes. Ah, that's right, notes. She was going to kill me. "I need your notes." Haruhi said to me as I let go of her and slightly backed away. I handed mine to her as she quickly grabbed another spiral and started to copy notes.

"Ah!" Tamaki exclaimed, " What happened to Haruhi's notes!" Quickly, Tamaki turned his head towards me and pointed at me. "It was you wasn't it!" Wow. How did he get into this school?

Shaking my head I just walked over to Haruhi and started to play with her hair. Tamaki then once again pushed me out of the way. Ugh. This was going to be a long day.


	4. Chapter 4

Before I Loved You

Chapter Four

Haruhi's POV

I sat at my desk and covered my ears as I tried to drown out the whispers that included my name. Not to mention the stares that I had gotten since yesterday. Honestly, I didn't care what these rich, snobby, bratty, gossipy kids said about me, but when I couldn't even study for the quiz that I was having next period it started to get a little annoying. Looking out of the corner of my eye I saw Kaoru holding his hand over his mouth trying not to laugh. Turning my head I gave him the death glare. I saw his shoulders stop shaking from laughter. Smiling a little I turned my head back down to my review sheet.

Lots of things were different at this school. For example, the speed at which gossip traveled was surprising. Especially since there were so many kids, but I guess that could help gossip. In fact every kid in the middle school section of Ouran knew about us "being together." Us being me and Hikaru. It had even started to spread to the high school section. When Tamaki had heard he grabbed Honey, Mori, and Kyoya and had dragged them to our classroom to try and do an intervention and to stop his innocent daughter from being with that devil.

Oh, not to mention the uniforms. Sure, I had uniforms at my old school, but they were simple. White and blue. Cotton. That wasn't exactly the case at this school. The girls wore brown long sleeved shirts outlined with white over a short brown skirt. It definitely wasn't made out of the type of cotton that I was used to wearing. The tag said it was cotton but...well…it was probably some of the best cotton in the world or something. Oh yeah, and it cost $125 for one uniform. I had two. The cost of both uniforms combined was the cost of the groceries I bought for about a month. Of course, I hadn't bought them. Like I could afford that. The twins had insisted that I wore them, apparently they were cuter. When I told them I didn't have the money they brought home two new uniforms from school the next day. They fit me perfectly. I had no idea how they found out what size I was, but I decided it was better not to ask.

Suddenly, the chatter quieted down. Ah, it must be the culprit. The cause of my lack of studying. I swear, if he didn't get me into this school I think that I would have already killed him. I kept my head down as I tried to keep on studying. Apparently that liar had some other plans, but didn't he always?

"Hey, Haruhi! You know you don't have to study for that quiz! It'll be easy. It's not as if you ever fail anything." Hikaru said, as he yanked on one side of my hair.

Getting up I grabbed my bag and started to walk out of the room as I heard Hikaru and Kaoru quickly get up from their chairs and run to catch up with me. If someone didn't know what was going on they would probably think that they were a pair of creepers. But who am I kidding this is a rich school. I don't even see anyone study. If anything they probably just study gossip of some sort.

Picking up the pace I padded along the tile floor as I made my way to the library. Ugh. Like that would be any better. Well, at least people wouldn't stare at me openly; they would stare at me behind bookshelves. Yay.

"Haru-chan! Wait up!" Kaoru shouted.

"Come on Haruhi. You know that was just some stupid thing that I said to those girls to make them go away! I didn't really mean for it to spread….but honestly would it be so bad being known as the girlfriend of me? Seriously, I have a mirror at home and I know for a fact that I'm not as ugly as some other people at this school!" reasoned Hikaru.

I stopped. Grinning I turned back towards them and started to laugh.

"Are all of the kids at this school this cocky?" I questioned through my laughs.

"Actually, most are." smirked Kaoru as he and Hikaru placed themselves on either side of me.

"You know, you don't have to follow me everywhere. I doubt someone would pick on me again after they knew that I was your "girlfriend." Besides, I was just going to the library."

I couldn't possibly stay mad at them for very long. It was impossible. Truly, it was. They would pull my hair, steal my lunch (although that wasn't that bad, I mean I got free lunch that was really high quality), try and get me to wear weird clothes, and I would end up laughing.

Shaking my head I pulled open the door to the library and walked over to a table in the corner of the huge room. Looking around I saw groups of kids chatting and just hanging around the library. Not to mention the eight foot tall shelves that had ladder attached to them so that you could peruse the top shelves at your own leisure. Not that anyone would at this school. There were plush sofas that were spread out across this huge room along with dark, chestnut desks that sat beside them. Tables for kids to do their homework were placed in one corner of the library. "How could anyone get any work done it they're sitting right by other kids?" I thought. "Oh, wait, they didn't use the library." What was I thinking? The kids here could probably pay someone to do their homework for them every night. Sighing I dropped my bag on the table and pulled out my review again.

I felt the twins staring at me. I ignored them. Then, I saw them start to squirm. They couldn't stay still for more than a second.

"If you don't have anything to do go find a book." I whispered. "This _is_ a library."

Frowning Kaoru got up and sighed, "Haruhi doesn't love me. I'll just have to go find some romance novel to make myself feel better." With that he wandered off into some other corner of the library. Rolling my eyes I smiled to myself as I looked over to Hikaru.

"Well…aren't you going to get a book, or are you just going to sit there and stare at me?"

"Huh, I prefer the latter choice." Hikaru said as he smirked. "Come on! It's break period. Let's go do something fun!"

"No thanks, besides, your fun isn't really my idea of fun." I said.

He walked over to my seat and grabbed my hand and was trying to get me out of my seat when the lights shut off. It was dark. Pitch black to be exact. This library had no windows, and everything was electricity powered.

Letting go of my hand I heard Hikaru's sharp intake of a breath. "Kaoru! He could be gone, hurt! A bookshelf could topple over on him! Someone could accidently punch him in the dark!"

I heard him start to move and I reached out and snatched his arm. Gripping him tightly so that he wouldn't pull away from me I started to feel around my bag for the light that I kept on my key chain.

As my hand found it I clicked the light on and pointed it towards Hikaru.

"It wouldn't do us any good to get separated, Hikaru. Plus, it's just dark, the lights went out. No one would start a fight just because the lights went out." I thought out reasonably.

That was until I heard the scream. Great, some kid that has probably never had this happen to them before. That was all the other kids in this library needed to start panicking. I heard shrieks, running, kids knocking chairs and tables over.

Hikaru tried to yank free of my arm. "Hikaru, stop trying to get free you'll only-" then he tripped. Bringing me down with him. I landed on something…err someone that I assumed was Hikaru. I felt something stir beneath my lips…wait, WHAT!

"Owww." I heard Hikaru moan and felt his lips move...under mine. Wonderful.

Sitting up I grabbed my keychain and tried to remove myself from sitting on Hikaru's stomach. Then, the lights flashed back on. Hikaru looked up, and I looked down. Another shriek sounded, but it was oh so recognizable.

"Taking advantage of my daughter when the lights were out, Hikaru! This is not how gentleman act!" screamed Tamaki. "It was a good thing that I happened to wander over here when the lights were out or else poor Haruhi might have been scarred for life!" he continued.

Smirking Hikaru sat up and wrapped his arms around me. Then, he moved my cheek towards him where he planted a light kiss there. His lips felt like feathers brushing across my cheek.

Running over to us Tamaki took my arm and dragged me up towards him. He then continued to hug me and tell me that it was all right and that he would have Hikaru arresting for his wrongdoings.

Prying Tamaki's arms away from me I rolled my eyes and glanced at my watch. Five minutes till the next class started. So much for trying to study. Grabbing my bag I started to walk towards the entrance of the library when I saw a confused Kaoru stumble into my path.

"Ah, Haruhi, I found you! Ugh when the lights went out I got totally lost and I couldn't find anyone. Then I think someone grabbed on to my leg…it was not pleasant." he said as he frowned at the memory.

He looked over my shoulder with a questioning glance as he saw Hikaru laughing on the floor with Tamaki shouting at him from above him.

"Don't ask." I said as I turned around and watched this scene that had become so normal take place.

"Awww, Tono, it was just a kiss. Not even on the lips! After all, we are boyfriend and girlfriend!" Hikaru shouted, and with that he made a mad dash over to us as Tamaki ran after him.

Snickering Kaoru ran over to start to tease Tamaki along with Hikaru. Glancing around for me Hikaru smiled and beckoned me to come over to him. Smiling, I placed a hand on my cheek and walked over to my "boyfriend."


	5. Chapter 5

Before I Loved You

Chapter Five

"Haruhiiiii! Come on you_ have _to go. Going would be like, I don't know, your rite of passage to officially going to Ouran. They have these like every other month! How are you going to make friends if you don't go." whined Hikaru.

"Be quiet. I told you for the last time I'm not going to that stupid dance. Besides who would pay to get into our school AGAIN when the only difference is that it's night and people are in different clothes." I said as I concentrated on writing the rough draft of my English assignment that I was currently working on while the twins played some videogames.

Honestly, I still couldn't get used to their house. I mean, it wasn't exactly a bad thing going home with them every day after school. I got a free limo ride and some free food. Not to mention that their house was a little closer to my house and the grocery market. But seriously, their game room was about as big as my house. A HUGE flat screen TV was on a wall with a couple of beanbags and plush chairs. Behind them was their usually layout of food. I still had to have help finding my way to the bathroom. Also, I came here so frequently that the maids, butlers, cooks, and all of their other servants knew me by name. Strangely, I still hadn't seen their parents. I was curious to see how they acted but I didn't want to pry. That would be a question for later.

I couldn't believe that these people went to school dances. It was like school…well you know without the school work. Plus you had to pay…but then again I guess that it wouldn't matter to kids that are at the school, well, besides me that is. Everyone was so excited when it was announced too.

"_Um, class, could you settle down. Ahem, yes, well it has been announced that this Saturday at 4:00 PM the middle school fall dance and festival will take place in the ballroom of Ouran Academy. Anyone that would like to come needs to pay in advance and sign up on this sheet. Thank you."_

Yup, right after our class president announced this there were screams of, "But there isn't enough time! That's only three days away! How is my tailor supposed to make me a dress!" and "I wonder if the circus is going to come again."

Yeah. That's not exactly how my old school dances went.

"But Haruhiiii you don't understand you _have _to go!" Kaoru pleaded as he came and sat by the desk I was working on.

Finally tearing my eyes away from my homework assignment I raised an eyebrow in annoyance. "Oh really, and why is that?"

Hikaru and Kaoru looked at each other nervously. "Ummm, because we sorta signed you up for the dance?" grinned Hikaru. "Yeah and um, we sorta designed and had our tailor make about fifty dresses for you to try on. With shoes and accessories." Kaoru followed up with.

You have got to be kidding me. Sighing I just put my head back on the table and closed my eyes. Soon, I felt a poke on my head. Followed by another…and then another. I was about to scream.

"You do realize that you're spending a TON of money on me right? And all I'm doing for you is spending time with you. That doesn't exactly seem like a fair exchange. Even if I do have to deal with you guys…which is actually pretty tiring." I said. "And then you go and spend probably thousands of dollars making me dresses and then you buy a ticket to the dance for me. How much money do you have? And don't your parent's even care that you're spending it?"

Both of the boys glanced at each other and shrugged their shoulders. "Not really. I mean when we spend the money it basically comes right back in. Our mom does design clothes. A LOT of it. The cash flows in nonstop practically. People all over the world buy her products." stated Kaoru.

Then, I saw a light go off above Hikaru's head. Smirking he looked over at Kaoru who nodded his head. This couldn't be good.

"Hey, Haruhi. If you don't go to the dance then you would have made us waste a LOT of money making all of these dresses for you. Not to mention the dance ticket. Also, they do have food there." smirked Hikaru.

Dang it. I knew it. They had me. Sighing I finally gave in. "Fine, fine, I'll go. You go ahead and pick a dress for me. I don't care." I said as I got back to working on my essay. It couldn't possibly be that bad. And if I didn't have to try on any dresses it would be that painful.

Happily the twins started to basically skip around the table that they had set up in the game room for me. "Hey, but wait. If we pick the dress we won't really know what it'll look like." reasoned Hikaru.

"Which is why," the twins stated in unison, "You have to come try them on!" They then commenced to each grab an arm and drag me to their "fitting room." Which I could have actually I don't know lived in for my whole life.

All around me were white marble walls that were behind about fifty dresses. They ranged in color from the pales white to a jet black. Also, there was practically every shade of color in between.

While I was still taking in the sight of this many high quality dresses I heard the twins whisper among themselves. "No, no black is too formal for this." "Yellow would look weird and so would orange…not to mention the brown one. Why is that even here?" "I think red isn't her style."

"Hey can you get rid of all of the black, yellow, orange, brown, and red dresses!" shouted Kaoru.

"Of course." Said two twins. Jumping a little I watched as the two identical black haired twin girls started to push the dresses Hikaru and Kaoru didn't want to a corner of the room.

"Okay Haruhi. We have about twenty dresses left. When do you go home normally? About five or six? Well you're going to stay after till about eight. We'll even drive you home. Now leave a message for your dad at home telling him where you'll be." commanded Hikaru as he whipped out a cell phone and handed it to me. Looking for sympathy in either of the pairs of twins' eyes I quickly found none. There was not getting out of this.

Quickly I called my dad and let him know where I would be. I had told him enough about the twins so that he would let me stay at their house. When I told him that they had paid for me to go to school he had been overjoyed with happiness saying, "Ah, my dear darling Haruhi gets to go to the school of her dreams. Also, it's at the expense of some rich boys! Make sure they're nice okay!" My dad wasn't exactly over protective as you can tell.

"Let's get this over with." I said.

Smirking the twins both said, "Sure thing."

I was thrown from the twins to the dressing room where the maids "helped me" (more like shoved me) into different dresses. I would then be shoved outside where the twins would nod their approval and put the dress into a maybe pile or shake their head and have the dress tossed into a corner of rejects.

In about two hours I had gone through the twenty dresses and was left with five. I was sweating and I was about ready to collapse on a bed even though I hadn't been doing anything. Well, I had been doing something but that something was just being thrown back and forth across a huge room.

The twins had me try on all five of the dresses on again. I was left with a strapless dark green dress that fell to below my knees, a white dress with thick straps that fell to my ankles, a cerulean blue dress that had a strap around my neck and was a little above my knees, a pale purple dress that fell to my knees, and a pale pink dress with thin straps that had a bow in a darker pink near the bottom of my dress.

Each time that I tried them on the twins would examine the dress closely and then they would quickly mutter things towards each other. They would have me get into another dress and compare and mutter again. In other words I wasn't picking the dress, they were. Honestly though, I didn't really care. Do you want to know what I do care about, though? The English essay that was due tomorrow.

In about another hour I was down to two dresses. Thank goodness. Looking at my watch I saw that it was already seven. I normally had dinner ready by now. Also, I was usually almost done with any essays that I had to write for the next day.

As I stepped into the pink dress, which was handed to me by the maids (hey, I didn't want to get changed by maids. In fact I had insisted that I change myself, but then the maids had just grabbed me and flung me into the dressing room.)

As I stepped out the twins smiled. "That's the one!" Kaoru shouted. "Yup," agreed Hikaru, "Now put on these shoes." He said as he handed me a pale pink pair of sandals with high heels. Slipping them on I wobbled a little as I tried to get used to standing on them. Wait, how did everything fit me so perfectly? How could they do that? Ugh, honestly I didn't even really want to know how they got my measurements.

"I'm going home." I said after I had walked around for five minutes. "You guys already picked out my dress right? How much did this cost anyways? I'll have to pay you back. Besides what are you going to do with all of those dresses?"

"Um I don't think that you'll be able to pay us back. Really. It was fun designing them. " insisted Kaoru.

Glaring at him I said, "Seriously. Come on."

Wincing he said, "Um, $1,300"

My jaw dropped. "I think I'll have to pay you back later."

Smiling Hikaru said, "And besides the other dresses with be checked up on by our mom, tweaked, and then sold in stores. See, it really wasn't a waste!"

As I packed up my homework worn out from three hours of being a football I silently headed into the limo that Hikaru and Kaoru had waiting. After I got in the piled in after me.

"Hey, Haruhi, since we're dropping you off can we come in to see how commoner's live?"questioned the twin.

Without hesitation I said, "NO."

This continued all the way to my apartment complex where I bolted out of the car, unlocked my door, and slammed it shut in record time. As I waited for the twins to leave I could see them grumbling inside their limo as they headed home.

I saw that my dad wasn't home yet so I made a really quick meal of some miso soup with rice balls. Eating my share and covering Dad's share with a plate I made my way to my room and shut the door as I tried to finish my homework. Let me tell you that I stayed up until one. And no I wasn't happy the next day. At all.

It really didn't help that the next three days after school consisted of hair style ideas and ballroom music with the twins trying to help me waltz. It was…difficult for me to try to dance. Honestly, it really wasn't something that I was good at. In fact, Hikaru called me a dancing donkey. He got a shoe thrown at him for that.

I was tired the rest of the week. In fact, I had planned to sleep in on Saturday until about noon. Yes, I was tired. Yeah, that didn't work too well. Especially when at ten 'o clock you hear your doorbell ring and you hear the two voices of the red headed boys that had kept me up this week. I heard them talking with my dad when I heard my room open.

Quietly I beckoned him to come towards me and I whispered, "Tell them I'm sick!"

Smiling at me he walked towards the door and flipped on the light switch.

"Oh Hikaru, Kaoru! Haruhi is in her room waiting for you, okay?" he said in a sing song voice. He smiled and said that he would be back at about three to see the finished product before I left.

Betrayal. It burns.

Before I could even get up out of bed the twins stampeded into my room with a box of what I could only guess were beauty supplies and there was a bag with my dress and shoes in it. They also had two bags with what they were planning to wear.

Groaning I was pulled out of bed and pushed into the bathroom with a, "Rise and shine! Wash your body but not your hair. We'll do that! Hurry up too!"

I swear, one day I was just going to snap and then they were going to be gone. Gone as in DEAD.

Speedily, I washed myself and stepped outside of the bathroom in my pajamas only to be shoved back in and my head being forced under the faucet in the bathtub.

"Close your eyes." Kaoru demanded as Hikaru pulled a bottle of shampoo and conditioner and started to lather my hair. After that was done they pulled out their super fancy and expensive blow dryer and started to work on my hair.

After they dried it Hikaru said, "Wow, Haruhi, your hair looks so much better. You should keep this shampoo, your hair was sort of dry before." He said as he moved towards my dress. Shoving me bag at me he told me to go change. Did they really think they could command people? Well, I guess they could. I mean, one time I tried to tell him that I wasn't going to play their video game with them because I had homework to do. Then, my homework was snatched away from me and I was blackmailed into playing with them. I don't even know when they got their homework done. It seemed as if they were always doing something else. Something else being anything but homework.

I quickly changed into my dress seeing as there was no choice in the matter and then carried out my shoes to find Hikaru and Kaoru poking around my kitchen and whispering. "It was a good thing we researched on commoner housing. When I saw the bathroom faucet I almost couldn't figure out how it worked, but then I remember that it said to pull the handle!"

I was continually amazed at their…well for lack of better words, stupidity.

As I stepped out I was bombarded with questions about my "interesting commoner lifestyle" while I was pushed into a chair and they worked on my makeup. They said that they weren't doing much. They were just making my skin "glow." Yeah, well that glow made my face feel about ten pounds heavier.

After thirty minutes they put mirror in front of my face and I saw…well…my face. "Are you sure that you put any makeup on?" I asked as they started to set up a boom box.

"Yup. Oh, and by the way we decided to leave your hair down." Kaoru smiled. Thank gosh. "Yeah, we were going for the natural look. We can both tell you look different!" seconded Hikaru.

Rolling my eyes I was pulled up by the twins as they turned some waltzes on. I then practiced my dancing skills for an hour. That is I danced with the twins laughed if I made on small mistake. I was about to slap one of them.

After that they went to go put their own clothes on as my dad came home. "My Haruhi! You look so cute! I do like those boys. They have a good sense of fashion. Who wouldn't like someone that helped to make my Haruhi so cute!" he practically squealed as he started to take pictures of me.

The twins stepped out of the bathroom in their own outfits. Both were wearing brown plaid vests over a white shirt and black slacks. Then, they went up to my dad and they started to go on and on about how kind he was for letting them use the house and about how they would take good care of me.

Ah, that's how they did it. Sucking up to my dad. After making me twirl around and take more pictures my dad steered me, Hikaru, and Kaoru into the limo waiting outside.

I was reminded on dance steps and not to mess up any of their hard work. As we reached the school Kaoru stepped outside and held the door open for Hikaru and me. We walked up the familiar steps of the school (that were a lot harder to walk in now that I was in heels) and into the lobby. We walked towards the ballroom and then entered through the beautiful white doors. I had never been in here before and when I looked up I was amazed. The ballroom had white and gold tiles with marble pillars and walls. Also, there was a stairway that led up to a huge balcony. Oh, and not to mention about six giant gold chandeliers hanging from the 20 foot tall celing. Off to one side there was also a layout of food . I might actually like this.

"Haruhi! You're here! I hope those devils didn't do anything to you!" said a certain blonde somebody that wasn't even supposed to be here.

Great.

This was longer than my normal chapters. I hope you like it! I'll continue the dance in the next chapter because I thought I was getting a little long. Read and Review!


	6. Chapter 6

Before I Loved You

Chapter Six

Kaoru's POV

I had to keep myself from bursting out laughing and snorting (yes, snorting) from the oh so different expressions on Hika and Tono's face. Let's see, well Hika had this expression of well, horror and disgust you could say. On the other hand Tono had this expression on his face where he thought that he needed to be thanked. He had even dressed up already even though the highschool dance wasn't until next Saturday. He liked to dress…princely I guess you could say. That basically meant an all white tuxedo that included a purple tie that "brought out the beautiful flecks of purple in his eyes." I think that he needed an ego check. While he might have been sort of annoying he did make our life more interesting. Today would be about…I don't know…exhibit 368?

"And what are you doing here Tono?" said an annoyed Hikaru obviously trying to keep his anger in check.

"Why, to save my poor daughter from having to spend a cruel and horrible evening where you will surely harass her with you twins!" shouted back as he took a step towards Haruhi.

Okay. That was enough. I wouldn't have my two weeks of planning to get Hika and Haru together ruined because of the stupid blond idiot. I'm sure that Hikaru didn't even realize this yet but I could easily tell that he thought she was different. That she was special to him. I saw that look in his eyes when we first took her to our house. It was like the glazed over look in his eyes disappeared. The spark that was always was supposed to be in his eyes had suddenly returned. You could say that I loved Haruhi for that. And maybe in a different way than just like a sister, but I could easily tell who needed her more. After spending two months with her Hika seemed to be happier. It was quite obvious, so I shoved those feelings down into the bottom of my heart and focused on trying to make Hika happier. Today would have been a HUGE success except for one problem. Guess who. Really, all I would have done was slipped away and since Haru basically only hung around with us and a couple of other people she would most likely hang with Hika which equals cute awkward moment which equals Hika being happy. At least that's how I had hoped it would turn out, but I was flexible. I could make this work.

Side stepping quickly I grabbed Tono's arm and made a mad dash by a group of girls. I smirked as I saw the cluster of girls start to crowd around Tamaki. Heh. He would never ignore him because he was just that nice. If I wasn't at a party now would be the place to insert a cackle.

Sprinting back across the ballroom I appeared right behind Hika and Haru who were just standing around looking around. Oh my gosh did these people not know how to communicate or anything? Guess I would have to take care of it. Smiling I suggested, "Hey, Hika why don't you go dance with Haruhi for this one song. I have to run to the restroom. I'll be back to dance with her the next song." With that I grabbed both or their shoulders and pushed them into the crowd of people slow dancing. As if. Actually, I would be spying on them for the whole four hours this party lasted and trying to make this party go according to my plans. Insert evil laugh here.

I glanced over at Tamaki and saw that the group of love stricken girls had grown bigger. Tono quickly glanced at their heads in a useless effort to find his "daughter." This was working out just fine.

Sneaking over to a pillar I slipped behind it and spotted them sort of standing there amid a group of moving bodies. Then I saw Hika rub his neck and then offer his other hand to Haru. Shrugging she placed her hand in his as they quickly fell into the steps of the waltz that now began to play. Grinning I pulled out the small pair of binoculars that I had placed into my vest pocket. As Hikaru put his hand on Haruhi's waist I saw him look away a little and blush. Haru didn't seem to mind at all. Huh. Time to make this a little more interesting. Looking at my watch I saw that there were only two hours till the dance was over.

Grabbing a bag that I had stashed underneath a table I started to speed walk towards the bathrooms. I would change vests. Put on a wig and attempt to do makeup wonders on myself so that I didn't look like, well, myself. Then I heard a Hikaru, no Kaoru, wait, yeah Kaoru help meee!" from Tono. Looking back over my shoulder I saw that he was literally under a pile of girls with a bunch of angry looking guys surrounding him. Uh oh. Ditching my bag I walked over to the growing crowd and shoved through until I reached the middle. Finding Tamaki's arm I grabbed it and then continued to shove the crowd while towing Tono with me. After I had my share of dirty looks and yells of "Come back Tamaki!" I walked him over to the plush sofas near the food layout and sat him down.

Wiping tears away from his eyes Tamaki said, "Ah thank you Kaoru you rescued me! Which reminded me that I have to go rescue Haruhi!"

No you're not. "Well Tono, do you really want to be mobbed like that again. Then I'll have to come save you again. How about this, I'll go see if Haruhi is okay and you can stay here and make sure….that um….no one takes too much food. Really, stay here." I said as he looked up at me. "Pinky promise?" I questioned. Nodding he proceeded to stated the rules of the pinky promise. There, that would make him stay there. Honestly he was like a little kid, but who didn't love little kids? They were cute, and trusting, and….annoying. Wow that fit Tono perfectly. But really, I did appreciate him. He was probably the only person that tried and tried again to be our friend. He somehow saw the good in us and perhaps showed my class that we weren't all that bad. Tono was an important person to me, but currently I was focused on something else.

Walking away from the couches I looked around me searching for Hika and Haru. Suddenly, I saw them to my left and then I quickly darted right. I would have to wing it, but I think that this would work.

Spotting an open balcony I looked back to my brother and our new friend. It was partially covered by a roof, but the moon light still filtered in through that front of the balcony. In front of it were the almost blooming cherry blossoms. Yeah, that would work. In fact, it looked like they were having fun. Haru was smiling and Hika was laughing, but now it was time to spice things up a little.

"Hey Haruhi, Hikaru! Sorry I took so long, I um, got lost." I said. "I heard that something was going on outside under the balconies and I wanna get front row seats. Can you go stand there while I get some food?" I asked.

Looking at each other I saw both of the shrug. "Sure, why not?" agreed Hika. "Yeah, but um, where's Tamaki-senpai. Usually he would be here harassing me."

Dang it. Why does she have to be so observant? "He's, uh, over at the food table. I'll bring him over." I stammered.

With that I turned around and started to walk over to the food buffet. Grabbing a couple of bananas I shouted, "Hey Tono! I found them on the balcony! Wanna come with me?" I didn't wait for an answer as I hurried and ran towards the balcony.

Sneakily I unwrapped one of the bananas and shoved the fruit into my mouth and when I reached Hika and Haru I dropped a banana peel just behind them. Smiling, I walked over to them and pushed them into a position so that Hika was facing Haru. Looking out of the corner of my eye I saw Tamaki running full blast towards them. Perfect.

"Hold still right there I wanna get a picture of you two. No! Stay there. Don't face me….the um…moonlight looks cool that way." I stammered.

3, Tamaki ran through the door of the balcony. 2, He started to shout Haruhi's name. 1, his foot somehow slipped on a banana that was strategically placed. Click, trying to catch his fall the stretched out his arms only to push Hikaru on the back into Haruhi. Flash, Hikaru's lips collide with Haruhi's as they both realize what is happening and start to blush.

Mission accomplished.


	7. Chapter 7

Before I Loved You

Chapter Seven

Hikaru's POV

Glancing out of the corner of my eye I quickly turned my head away from Haruhi as she looked in my direction again. Crap. That was what, the third time that I hadn't even realized that I was staring at her. What was wrong with me? Actually, I knew what was wrong. Drowning out the teacher's voice I felt my cheeks flush about what had occurred at the dance.

I was turning my head towards Kaoru's camera when I felt a push from behind and then I felt Haruhi's cool lips on mine. When I had realized what had happened I jerked my body away from her as I felt the blush race across my face in record time. Then, I felt how hard my heart was pounding. It was completely unnatural and weird. I mean, I wasn't running and I wasn't doing anything strenuous. After we had dropped Haruhi off at her house after the dance (which might I say was quite a bit awkward) I asked Kaoru about it. Yeah, all I got in response was a grin, a chuckle, and then a "You'll figure out soon enough." followed by a remotely evil laugh. Honestly, I couldn't get it out of my head. The same scene kept on replaying over and over and over in my head.

"Argh, GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" I yelled as I grabbed the sides of my head in frustration. Then, I heard a cough to the side of me from Haruhi and then I heard a snort leave Kaoru's mouth. Right. School. I kept my head down for the rest of the class period and even paid attention…a little. But even that small bit of dedication deserves a round of applause. Go me.

As we continued on to our next class I once again listed the possibilities of why I had felt so weird.

1. Maybe I was excited over getting my picture taken. Wait, I wasn't _that _shallow. I mean, sure, I cared about how I looked but…okay off topic.

2. I was surprised about being pushed. Yeah right. There wasn't much I could be surprised by. I mean, me and Kaoru had probably pulled all of the surprise pranks in the world. Plus, it was Tono.

3. Um, I don't know.

See, I would always get to number two and then stop. As I wasn't one to keep secrets from my twin I kept on bugging him about this. Yet again I would just get a knowing look. I was beginning to feel like an idiot. I have a plan, I'll just drop the subject entirely. Ha, I win Kaoru. Then, I got a little image of Kaoru popping up in my head saying, "You know if you drop something it's just going to come back and bite you in the butt!" Ugh, shut up.

"…amusement park for Halloween?" asked Haruhi.

Blinking I tried to remember anything that she had said before. Dang it. No recollection. Darn you daydreams. Looking around for Kaoru's helpful hints I found no pair of golden eyes to take a hint from. Dang. "What?" I finally blurted out. Aren't I just the smoothest person?

Sighing Haruhi rolled her eyes and asked, "Do you and Kaoru want to come to the amusement park with me on Friday for Halloween?"

Grinning I responded, "Of course."

Come to think of it Haruhi wasn't like most girls. If she was I would probably not have been her friend. Except she was poor so she already wasn't like most other girls. Er, a commoner. Ugh. Tono was getting to me. For example, there was this one time where a bug was crawling across Haruhi's desk and I watched as she just picked the thing up, opened up a window, shut it, and walk over to her desk like nothing had happened. She stared at me as my mouth opened slightly.

"What have you never seen a bug before or something?" she asked as she settled into her desk and started to pull out her notes from yesterday.

"No, it's just that, well…" and then I gestured to her desk. Yup, Mr. Smooth makes a reoccurrence with his sidekick Vague Boy.

Finishing up for me Kaoru said, "Well, it's just that girls here don't normally do…well, that." And then he gestured to the rest of our classmates as the turned around like they weren't staring at Haruhi.

That's what it was. She wasn't scared of what most girls usually were. Tomorrow would be Operation Find Out What Haruhi is Scared Of.

"Tell Kaoru, okay?" she said as she walked off to her next class. Ugh, I hated History. Partially because I didn't have anyone in there with me. Who am I kidding it was because I didn't have Haruhi or Kaoru in there with me.

I won't lie and say that I paid attention in class. I didn't even try to do that. In fact, I spent the last period of the day sketching some dresses in my spiral along with wondering about what Haruhi was scared of. And voila! There was my plan for getting that…moment out of my head. Friday would be Operation Find Out What Haruhi is Scared of Day. Or OFOWHSD. Ofowahsd. Not quite as catchy as I thought it would be, but no matter, it was the thought that counted.

And so the day went on until Friday afternoon in which I had already planned out what I was going to test her sacredness level on. That is until I saw that stupid blonde idiot with his usual gang of friend. Okay so here's how I thought of them:

Kyoya – The real mastermind behind anything they do.

Tamaki – The idiot (You can't deny that if he were in as espionage spy mission he would be the distraction. Sacrifices have to be made for success. Too bad, right?)

Hunny – Um, how about the Lolita boy that somehow never ever gets cavities.

Mori – The typical dark knight of the group. Also, known as Hunny's bodyguard.

And yes, this group of mismatched rich boys were standing right in front of the gates on our Halloween play date. Ours being me, Kaoru, and Haruhi. As I stepped out of the limo I saw a bunch of people turn towards me and stare. Why would they…oh that's right. This was a _commoner's _amusement park. Gotcha.

As Kaoru and Haruhi were also stepping out I was trample by a certain blonde someone demanding to know why he wasn't invited to this night of "fun and games" as he called it. Tugging down my vest and t-shirt that matched with Kaoru's I turned away from him as I muttered, "Because I don't like you." But wait, how did he get here? Spinning around I turned to glare at Kaoru who sheepishly grinned at me. Spinning around I grabbed Haruhi by her faded commoner's t-shirt and headed towards the entrance.

"The more the merrier?" he said.

Maybe, but not when his name is Tamaki with his laptop wielding, cake eating, bodyguard like friends. Whatever. I'll deal. As long as my plan goes smoothly. I beckoned the two accepted others towards me and handed the tickets over to the guard and walked inside. I heard Tamaki yelling about how he should get a ticket since there was such a short line, but honestly and truthfully, what did I care?

I heard Haruhi sigh and then turn back towards the group but still continue to follow me. I followed this stupid not very detailed commoner's map towards the first stop...the spooky maze.

Yeah, that didn't really work out considering she found her way out about 15 minutes before me and Kaoru. That's right. She left us. But no matter, I was going to move onto the next one on my list.

Heights. The coaster that I chose was the highest one in the park with a practically vertical drop. Once again no reaction. Just some smiles and another picture bought (two of them, one for me and Kaoru and one for her) and some suspiciously familiar blubbering in the car behind us.

This was so not working. Was she even scared of anything? Maybe she was like some almighty power that was afraid of nothing. Isn't my logic just amazing?

I weaved through the crowds back to the table and handed off two of the three ice creams cones that I had just bought.

"My treat." I said as I sat down. As I bit into my cone I heard something in the distance. Thunder, maybe? Oh well, there were plenty enough restaurants to give us shelter. As I started to think of all the things that I could test my Haruhi is an almighty person plan I heard her shift in her seat uncomfortably.

Cocking an eyebrow at her I started to feel small raindrops pelt my hair and start to soak through my vest. And then, I grabbed Haruhi and Kaoru and joined the crowd of people running through the park trying to get to cover. Then, I felt the pressure on my left hand slip and I saw Kaoru being swept away by the crowds. Smiling, he gave me a thumbs up. What the heck? But honestly, there was no time to worry about that when a small brown haired girl is tugging at your hand trying to make you let go and run off into the crowds of people without you.

"Haruhi, what's wrong? We have to go find Kaoru, come on!" I shouted over the rain that was coming down hard now.

Shaking her head she started to tug at my hand again. What had gotten into her? This normally calm girl was the one being crazy for once. Why?

As the thunder rang overhead I heard her cringe and her eyes that were normally so indifferent showed a flash of fear, if only for a second. Then, I understood. Thunder.

Pulling her along with me I started to head to the nearest building which turned out to be the haunted house. I pushed her inside the entrance before me as I felt the cool air-conditioning blow against my skin. I then sat Haruhi down and whipped out my ipod and stuck the earbuds in her ears. Then, I sat down beside her and pulled her head down onto my shoulder. First, I felt her tense up, but as I started to stroke her hair I felt her calm down and eventually close her eyes and relax against me. As the thunder started to flash again I felt Haruhi shiver against me as the haunted house lit up from…lightning? If it was it sounded surprisingly like a camera flash. Whatever.

Still stroking her hair I laid my head down on hers so that I could close my eyes too. I was hit by a fruity smell…like artificial strawberries. Like the ones in the cheap shampoos. And it smelled…good. Jerking my head up I sat up straight and rigid while mentally scolding myself.

What are you doing? Smelling her hair? What are you, a creeper now like Tono?

Surprised by my actions I felt Haruhi stir from my shoulder. Ah, I shouldn't have jerked my head up.

Blinking her chocolaty eyes at me she popped the earbuds out of her ears and tilted her head as if listening for something. The rain I assumed. As I strained my ears I realized that it had stopped and as she got up and stretched I started to blush as I realized what had just happened. Did I really just drag Haruhi into a dark haunted house and lean her head against my shoulder?

Man, I really was becoming a creeper like Tono. Then, I heard the doors open and I stood up as I saw that annoying pest stride towards me. Better yet I saw Kaoru emerge from behind a gravestone with something in his hand.

Pushing past Tono I ran towards him and hugged him. Wait, but how was he in here? I thought he had gotten separated from me. And why was there a disposable camera in his hands? Weird.

My brotherly moment was soon interrupted by Tono and the rest of his cronies asking me questions. As per usual I ignored most of them except for the girl's.

"Hikaru?" she said, "Thanks." and with that she flashed one of her quick and ever fleeting smiles at me and held out her hand to me.

Grinning I walked over to her and took her hand as I shoved a blonde somebody that was trying to stop me from holding her hand out of the way. And as I took that steady hand inside of my own I felt my heart beat a little faster and as I smiled at her, she smiled back.

-Don't you just LOVE how Hikaru is so dense about some things? I think it's sorta cute. And yes the "lightning" was from the camera Kaoru is holding. Just like in the last chapter he's taking pictures of all of the fluff moments between Hika and Haru. Creeperish but just sincere enough to make it Kaoru. Hope you liked it! Put up review with critiques please!


	8. Chapter 8

Before I Loved You

Chapter Eight

Haruhi's POV

I was never one for fairy tales. Pretty, pink princesses never truly appealed to me. Which, honestly, was one reason I was about to scream at the girl that was pulling the corset so tight on me that I couldn't even breath.

"Stop." I gasped out as I wrapped my hands around my back and undid about five of the laces. Ugh. I don't even know why I had to wear a corset. But then again, why do I keep asking myself questions like that? It was obvious wasn't it? The reason was two devious twins that insisted on having, "magnificent, wonderful costumes to display my full potential." Tamaki must have been rubbing off on them.

"Play starts in fifteen minutes." the class representative shouted throughout the din backstage.

Great.

'Haruhiii. Are you ready? It can't take possibly that long to put on a dress." Hikaru said as he brashly walked right into my dressing room without knocking. Whipping around I was about to start lecturing him on the dangers of the corset to my ribs when I saw what he was wearing.

A dark navy blue slim cut jacket with gold tassels hanging off of the shoulders. This covered a white button up that was covered in ruffles over matching blue pants. Oh, I almost forgot the saber that was strapped to his side.

Noticing my silence he grinned and walked up to me, "Awestruck by my beauty? It's alright. Everyone else is too." Walking around me in a circle he scolded me. "Haruhi, come on, the show is about to start. You don't even have your costume on." I wonder why.

My costume, otherwise known as a torture device, consisted of layer upon layer of soft pink shifts, skirts, and silks. The outermost layer was stitched beautifully with white thread. Oh, and there was no zipper, buttons, or Velcro. It was supposed to be laced up. Like a corset.

Spinning me around so that my back was towards him he gently picked up the laces and started to tighten them so that they were taught, but not quite as breathtaking (ha, pun) as my "costume help" was.

I wasn't shocked when I saw Kaoru walk right into the dressing room without knocking either. They did say that twins were similar, right? "Wow, Hika. We've only known her for three months and you're already making the moves on her?" Karou said with a suggestive smile. I rolled my eyes.

What would I do without my pervy redheads?

'Whatever." Hikaru commented, "There. Done. Now go!" he said as he pushed me out of the dressing room and onto the stage. You have the first line. You can't be late. Break a leg….or rather, try not to." he said as I wobbled in my brand spankin' new six inch heels.

"Shut up. I've got this." I replied as I shakily walked onto the stage. "I've got this."

* * *

"The annual school carnival is coming up and this year the class has decided on a play." the class rep. yelled, "It's decided that we're going to do Cinderella. Now, it's time to draw roles."

As we all started to line up I desperately wished that I would get a small part. No, it's not cause I had stage fright or anything , well, actually, there were quite a lot of reasons.

1. I would get behind in school work and I had to retain a number one status to stay in school on the scholarship.

2. I would have to stay for rehearsals and that would get me behind on chores.

3. Hikaru and Kaoru would be sure to put me in something ridiculously fru-fru and ruffly.

4. I wasn't that great at acting.

As I stepped up to the bucket it had to be just my luck when I saw the name Cinderella scrawled neatly onto my slip of paper. Peering over my shoulder Kaoru showed his. DIRECTOR was written on his. "Haruhi what'd you get?" he questioned as he snatched my slip away from me. 'Princess? You got PRINCESS?" Scowling I snatched my paper away from him, "Yeah, so what?" I asked as he wiped away tears from his eyes.

"Ugh. What did you get Kaoru. I got prince. I hope the princess isn't ugly." Hikaru said in a bored tone as he stuffed his slip into his pocket.

"Far from that." Kaoru commented as he pushed me in Hikaru's direction. "She's right here."

"Haruhi? You're princess?" he said as he smothered his laughter with the palm of his hand.

Sighing I started to walk away to study in the library for my free period. I started to calculate how much time would be lost with practicing for the play after school. Hm, not as much time to go grocery shopping. Hopefully since I'll be staying the Hikaru and Kaoru they won't make me come over.

As per usual I heard the twin footsteps echoing behind me as they caught up to me. "Now that I think about it, it can't be _that_ bad with you as princess." Hikaru said as he draped an arm on my shoulder. "Of course not." Kaoru echoed with a seemingly suspicious glance my way.

Wonderful.

But of course, things were far from that. The main cast was lacking potential. The evil stepmother seemed more concentrated on what types of teacups we were using for sets than actually reading her part. Also, both of the evil stepsisters and mother kept on giggling when reading their lines. Not to mention the class representative being an unwilling fairy godmother. It seemed that he was concentrating on starting at one of the giggling evil stepsisters. Not that I could complain. I wasn't exactly a tremendous help to anyone. According to Kaoru, who had very much so stepped up to his role as director, I spoke in a non-expressive voice.

"Be in love with the prince!" he had spoken through his voice amplifier, otherwise known as a small orange traffic cone, "You sound like he's the bane of your life, not the reason for your existence."

Glancing out of the corner of my eye I saw Hikaru swagger over to me and bat his eyelashes. "Yes Haruhi. Be in love with me. You _LIVE_ for me."

Pushing him away I tried to refrain from laughing as I was stared down by Kaoru. "Um, I'll try." I said as I repeated the line. "I love you my prince. I never, ever want to be without you again."

Looking at Kaoru for approval he shook his head in disappointment. Wow. He really took his job seriously. Beckoning me to come over he said, "I think that we might need to change the play. Or at least rewrite the script. I mean, this is the fifth day we've practiced this scene and you haven't changed your voice at all. I mean, it sorta sucks. No offense."

"Right. None taken. But how would we change the play? It's Cinderella. Everyone knows the story. We can't exactly change it." I said.

"Ah, but that's the thing. We can. We can just say it's something Cinderella-ish. I think that it would be easier if we let the characters be more like themselves. Like you, the princess, could, no offense, but be more…how should I put this…unemotional. And the prince, instead of being all prince-like and gallant could be more like that arrogant but like the lovable Hika we all know. And the fairy godmother could be, well, let's just say not very concerned with Cinderella's problem. And how much could it hurt if we changed the stepsister's and mother's personalities? All in favor say "Aye.""

While still trying to digest how we were going to go about making these changes I was met with a resounding "Aye" from behind me. I looked back at all of the crew members and extras leaning on the walls with bored expressions clearly stamped on their face. With the exception of the main characters everyone else had voted yes. Not that I had minded either way.

Clapping his hands Kaoru smiled, "Okay. Time to get the real show on the road. Cast members. Get your butts in gear and start giving ideas on writing scripts. I want drafts by tomorrow that I can review. Okay? See you guys tomorrow!"

To say that the class was pleased with this assignment was clearly an overstatement which was proven by the groans that followed after Kaoru's unexpected announcement. To say that they were displeased would have been an overstatement too. Rather, the reaction was more of a relief. I guess it would be relief from the crappy acting that we had been giving them to watch for the past couple of days. At least now they could actually try and make the play better than what it was. Which I assume was probably the most boring production of Cinderella that they've probably been seen in their life.

As far as I could tell it was actually going pretty well. But considering these kids had been going to operas in Italy every summer as far back as they can remember I would have to say that this wasn't exactly up to their standards.

That's what I was still getting used to. This higher class way of thinking. Our budget for school plays at my old school was nothing. Literally. We used what we had at home and in the school closets and attic. For this play we had a 5,000 dollar budget. When I asked why to the class rep. he had kindly explained it instead of the weird looks that I had gotten from some of the other kids.

"You see, there's the matter of making the sets, having the costumes custom made, the orchestra, makeup, electricity, and whatever else we happened to need. Actually, the school has cut down on the budget for the carnival. Weird. " he explained to me. Kindly he didn't comment on my mouth that I believe was hanging open from shock. Stupid rich people.

I could only manage an, "Ah." as I sat down in my chair and pondered about how much nice food I could get for that much money.

"Hey, Haruhi, what do you think of these three scripts. I think that these are the best." Kaoru said to me as he pointed at three stacks of paper lying side by side on his desk. "Me and Hika narrowed them down from a stories about a Schizophrenic Cinderella to a Cinderella that was fell in love with a cloud that she thought was a prince and everything else in between."

Raising an eyebrow at him he just shrugged his shoulders. "What? We have creative people in our class. So what?" he said as he pushed the papers towards me.

Skimming through each of them I decided that the play would turn out much better now that they had modified the characters a little…er, a lot.

Cinderella Version One was set in modern day. It basically goes on like the normal fairy tale except for well…in the 21st century. Also, they changed the characters to fit our personalities. Alright. That wasn't too bad.

Cinderella Version Two had more of a Romeo and Juliet flair about it. I guess that could work too.

Cinderella Version Three was Cinderella, except with reverse roles. As in most everything was opposite. It could actually work. Interesting.

As far as I could tell either one of these would be better than what we had. Which we didn't really have at all. But other than that, I'm sure the play would come out fine. My math project on the other hand wasn't exactly foolproof considering how much time Kaoru made us spend on this play. Actually, I was surprised that most of the kids listened to Kaoru. When I came here they sort of seemed to shy away from them. But then again, so did Hikaru and Kaoru.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw them laughing with a couple of other people. They had changed hadn't they? Other kids didn't seem to hate them as much. And they weren't so…well, so angry looking all the time I guess. Laughing Hikaru caught my eye and smiled at me. Putting my head down I felt the heat spread across my face in record time. Flashes of memory ran through my brain as I felt the cool room of the haunted house and Hikaru's calming hand stroking my hair. Shaking the thoughts out of my head I wondered what was wrong with me. I was here for school.

What was I doing? Blushing? At a _smile_? God, it sounded like I was turning into one of those fan girls that Hikaru and Kaoru always seemed to have.

"So which one?" Hikaru asked as he walked back over to me and sat on his heels so that he could be eye level to me.

"Any of these would work. They all still have the basic story line, so it doesn't really matter. Which one do you like the best?" I questioned back.

"Hm, well, all of them have one thing in common. And that's _you_ fall in love with _me_. So basically they all have the main plotline, right. After all, who could resist these looks?" Hikaru grinned cheekily as he struck a ridiculous pose.

Doubling over with laughter I replied with an, "Of course."

"Hey Kaoru. Why don't you just have a vote?" I suggested.

"Good idea."

And with that, a couple of arguments, set changes, costume changes, and a freshly printed stack of new scripts it was decided that we would be putting on a play about something Cinderella-ish in which the roles were reversed and so were the personalities.

Which is how I ended up being first on stage. In a pink frilly dress and heels that I could barely walk in. After trying to delicately walk in my costume (more like stomp around) I heard the final touches being ready for the opening act I sat down on the couch with a platter of fancy tuna in the center of stage and took a deep breath.

As the curtains were rising I heard someone whisper from backstage, "Hey, Haruhi. Good luck, and don't trip. We can't have something Cinderella-ish with a dead princess." Hikaru said with a final grin and a thumbs up.

The orchestra started to play and the spotlight focused on me as I tried not to focus on all of the people in the audience. Which brings me to the point where I decided that if life was a stage, then surely I would have pushed Hikaru off it. But life was life, and as Kaoru said no matter what happened, the show must go on.


End file.
